Building a horse barn can be a complicated process. The first consideration is location of the building. You need to carefully consider the location for the building. It should be a slightly elevated building site so that rain will run off away from the building foundation. This leads to the second consideration, the foundation. There are several possibilities to consider here. The first is a concrete slab, in a horse barn you will probably not want concrete at least in the stall area.

The next possible type is a pier system which has piers spaced at certain intervals around the perimeter of the building. Another option is to use posts sunk into the ground. This last option is the easiest, but it is the least lasting of all of them. In most barns the optimal choice is a combination of a slab and pier system. With this choice you have concrete in the areas where you store hay and tack(you want to prevent rodents from getting into this area) and dirt floor in the areas that the horses will be. In the stalls you can put mats down and wood chips or some other type of absorbent material down. It is also important to make sure that the area under the mats drains properly.

The next consideration is the strength of the building. With horses you have to consider the strength of the walls. An agitated horse can kick through a wall that is not built strong enough. Having horses in an area that they can kick through the wall and be exposed to sheet metal can be very dangerous for the horse. Most horse barns use a minimum or 2 x 6 inch tongue and groove boards for stall linings.

The building you choose should be strong enough for the seismic and snow loads in your area. Some buildings don’t meet the building codes for an area, but if they are in the county some people will sell you a building that is not up to code because they know that there will be no inspections in the county. That is kind of like stealing something because you know that you won’t get caught because you happen to know that the police are occupied somewhere else. The fact that you won’t get caught doesn’t make it a good idea. Building codes are in place to help make sure buildings are strong and safe enough to last in your area.

A final consideration is style, this is a matter of taste as well as function. You should chose a building style based on what will work best for you and what you think looks good. The lay of the land around your barn is an important consideration when laying out your barn as well. The last thing you want is a barn that looks really good, but is clumsy or inconvenient because of the layout or orientation of the barn.